• TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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      It’s a pretty decent shot for your average joe, but by no means something that requires a “professional”. Anyone with a little experience with rifle hunting usually has a grouping of 3-4 inches or better at 200 yards. Assuming they were aiming center mass, they were ranged high by about 4-5" high, but dead center for windage.

      So imo a good shot considering the nerves that come with the situation, but a bit sloppy if we were talking about target shooting at the range.

      • SickSemper [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        People treating a 200 m shot like it’s a Hitman style assassination is blowing my mind, yes it was a precise single shot, but immediately going “specops marksman inside job” for that distance is wild

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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          It’s not anything to sneeze at considering the circumstances, I’ve whiffed worse at 200 yards on a deer. However, it’s not exactly going to require Jason borne or anything.

        • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.net
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          a little rough with irons from the shoulder, pretty easy with a scope and anything to set the gun on. main issues are going to be wind and not zeroing the scope with the ammo you’re using on the big day.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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            I’d say it would be an excellent shot with irons from the shoulder, but my eyes aren’t what they used to be. Windage and zeroing aren’t really a factor at 200 yards unless the wind is extreme. Even with bad wind at 200 yards most of your hunting caliber rounds will only drift 2-3 inches at most. Most long range rifles are zeroed at 200-300 yards.

            He was dead center for windage, just a bit high for range. The main issue is this scenario is mainly nerves, which is prob why his range was 4-5 inches high, prob jerked on the trigger a little or his rifle was ranged for 300-400 yards. Can’t say I haven’t whiffed it worse while hunting at that distance, and I wasn’t in immediate danger of being arrested or killed by a game warden or anything.

            Imo a real decent shot for most shooters with a bit of experience when considering the circumstances. Adrenaline is a real big factor when it comes to accuracy, really fucks with your fine motor skills.

        • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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          its literally a professional hit wym lol, the shooter being a pro or not doesn’t really matter, the hit was a pro hit.

        • It’s me. I’m the problem. It’s me. It seems like an incredible shot. 2.5x the distance of Lee Harvy Oswald who took multiple shots. I know nothing about guns. It would seem to me like it required foresight and planning, especially if you have a getaway plan. Then you have to keep yourself steady when it’s showtime as well indicated experience to me.

          Is that something an amateur marksman can do? It seems really well executed.

            • I ran away with the idea that it would take a soldier to get that kind of experience. Mossad seems a little dubious because they’re on the same side. Seems like Mamdani or Hasan would get their ire first. So I guess my line of thinking runs dry if I try to ascribe an active soldier carrying out an entity’s will

                • Sickos [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.net
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                  Like honestly I think reinforcing the “this was a pro” “this was Israel/Ukraine” conspiracy theories is the best way to spare the left a bit of extra pressure. The right wing conspiracy folks are fighting over who did it right now.

          • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            Is that something an amateur marksman can do?

            Oh, definitely. Guns are easier to shoot than you think. Put in a few hours of practice and you hit this shot any day.

        • Lenins_Sabocat@lemmygrad.ml
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          Sure, but there’s also the planning, the escape route, the not getting spotted/identified, the stress. There’s a lot pointing at someone with more than just casual experience.

  • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
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    As someone who played a lot of sniper games I can confidently say this is bullshit.

    A professional sniper would aim for the balls for the humiliation.

      • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.net
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        ended up not mattering but the thing where his gun didn’t cycle because of the extra weight hanging off the barrel is also a solved problem with several options: use a different kind of handgun where the barrel doesn’t need to move, use a little “booster” doohickey so the action doesn’t have to move the whole mass of the suppressor to cycle, or tune all the working parts to account for the suppressor (and then don’t shoot the thing unsuppressed because it’ll have too much gas)

        • john_brown [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          Glad to see sanity about the luigi shooting, the people claiming the shooter was some kind of professional assassin certainly didn’t pay much attention to the video. Malfunction after malfunction, that setup had not been tested.

            • john_brown [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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              Anybody who’s done some shooting with a .22lr semi-auto pistol would likely have that kind of muscle memory response to clear a jam. The point I’m making is a professional would not have used a gun that didn’t function properly. You’ve already got a can on it, go out in the woods and run a few mags through it to make sure it works.

              • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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                Don’t those 3d printed guns usually start malfunctioning as a result of moderate use, as in the process of testing then?

                • john_brown [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                  Absolutely, any home made pistol would have some teething issues. I have an 80% “glock” that took a while to make reliable. I think I had to put about 800rds through it as well as replacing the extractor with an aftermarket machined one instead of the shitty imperfect OEM one and doing a little bit of polishing on the internal hardware before it could get through a whole magazine without a failure. I would have been dumb as a rock to carry that for protection before I had another 500-1000rds down the pipe without a single malfunction.

  • Chana [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    He got shot at a distance. There is literally no other information. wtf they mean, “professional sniper”?

    Loser on camera cited this logic:

    • One shot and he dead.
    • 200 meters.
    • They got away.

    All of which is compatible with it just being someone who has practiced with a long range rifle, like a .308 hunting rifle, which I bet includes a very large percentage of people in Utah. And someone who decided to not get caught. It’s not like it’s that difficult, just move fast, cover your face, and enter your vehicle away from cameras. Cops and security are incredibly incompetent, all they know how to do is shoot minorities and people in crisis and shit themselves when an acorn drops in their vicinity.

    • FedPosterman5000 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      Yeah idk either - especially with this event receiving so much media attention locally. It’s not like he gets presidential level security, so it wouldn’t be the most difficult thing in the world for a shooter to scout locations, and then either alone or with accomplices, ditch the weapon, change clothes, ditch the scene, etc. Maybe a higher profile grifter would’ve had security secure locations with open sight lines to a reasonable distance; but Kirk basically made himself a sitting duck in a state with a shitton of hunters and open carry 🤷

      not to mention Kirk has an incredibly punchable face (assuming this translates to other actions) - so it literally may have been the first time the shooter ever heard of Kirk and it was a coincidence too.

      • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
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        He also had an extremely tiny face, so the shooter may easily have hit the neck but been aiming for his head.

  • Flinch [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    calling my shot now: Charlie was killed by a Mossad sniper as a sacrifice to pull attention away from the Epstein birthday book stuff, and to rile up the right wing base for further violence against the left

    my very very circumstantial evidence: one very accurate single shot from a confident shooter from 200 yards away, someone who clearly knew their weapon and knew how to make a clean getaway, either alone or with help. Netanyahu’s tweets regarding the shooting, which took place in the early morning hours in Palestine time, around 1-3am (my math is wrong on this one). Up until a few weeks ago, Chuck wanted the Epstein files released. He walked this one back but it might not have been enough to save him.

    come back to me in 20 years when this all comes to light and tell me I was right.

    • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      I’m not wholly convinced by this, but if this was the case Kirk makes a sensible target.

      He’s always at massive events with little serious security, it ties into Israeli fears of violence on campuses, his a high profile pundit but not really an ‘activist’ in any kind of essential role for the MAGA/international fascist project.

      But most of all, while still being a pro-Israel ghoul, he’s been pissing off Israeli hardliners the last month or so. He stated that some of the crackdowns on any anti-Israel sentiment go too far and risk his sacred ‘free speech’. He was entertaining the idea publicly that Epstein was being run by Mossad. He’s been on Megan Kelly’s show and others to talk about how the Israeli hardliners on the right are going too far in attacking him, pushing people like him away, saying they’re overly paranoid etc. Apart from getting some ultra-hardcore-zionist backlash on social media for that there’s been a couple of critical articles of him in places like The Times of Israel in recent months too.

      So if Israel or someone associated with it we’re going to pick an ‘ally’ to use for something like that, he’d be a good choice.

      • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        his a high profile pundit but not really an ‘activist’ in any kind of essential role for the MAGA

        I disagree on this. He was basically the biggest “independent” media voice among those that are tied to MAGA at the hip, hence the famous “I trust my friends in the government [Trump’s White House]” for why he was swearing off the Epstein stuff.

        I think the violence on campuses thing is also a stretch here, but otherwise I agree. Nonetheless, I think Shapiro is a better target in every respect other than being the Israel hardliner of the online left, including being Jewish so the attack could be spun as “antisemitism,” so I think if it was on the initiative of the White House and not Mossad, he’s a much better target.

    • NuraShiny [any]@hexbear.net
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      Not to rain on your theory, but your math is indeed wrong.

      Europe is at minimum 5 hours ahead of the US in Portugal, 6 in central Europe and then 7 in Palestine. Utah is 2 hours away from the East Coast. Charlie got shot at around noon Utah time making that, like 9pm local time for Netanyahu, prime posting hours.

    • very_poggers_gay [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      I’m trying not to conspire, but wow was this a great way to wipe the headlines clean of all talk about Israel bombing Qatar - it seemed like Israel was getting more flak from the bourgeois media for that than attacking Iran

    • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      Is it true that Kirk was originally Trump-skeptical during the latest round of Epstein stuff before saying “actually I trust the government”?

      • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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        Kinda but not really. Charlie Kirk was the kind of grifter who doesn’t believe in much of anything, he will say whatever benefits him the most at any given moment. Right-wing audiences generally aren’t happy with how Trump is handling the Epstein stuff, and there’s a noticeable rift in right-wing influencers between those who tow the government line no matter what (Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Tim Pool) and those who say what their audience wants to hear (Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens). Outside of Epstein, this is also very noticeable when it comes to Israel.

        Kirk got yelled at by his audience when he first tried to defend Trump from the latest Epstein news so he caved a little until, if I recall correctly, he got a direct phone call from Trump himself and fell back in line. I don’t think his personal beliefs factored in anywhere. There are right-wing influencers who genuinely believe what they say, but Kirk wasn’t one of them.

        • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Ah yeah I was hoping it would add to the conspiracy if he was somewhat firm about pressing trump and turned hard after getting a (spooky) phone call/meeting and then they take him out anyway to send a message to the rest of the trumpfluencers

          What you said tracks though

          • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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            Yeah, I really don’t think the US government was behind this in any way. Kirk was a young and popular propagandist who was willing to say whatever the Trump admin or his fascist patrons wanted him to. He had a huge audience and was frequently hosting major conservative conferences. His death is imo a genuine loss for the American right wing, especially the brand of Christian nationalism he represented. If I was the Trump admin and wanted to kill a right-wing figure to rile up the base or whatever, I would pick a more expendable target.

            Mossad? They’re rabid lunatics and capable of anything. I still don’t think they actually did it, but it’s not impossible. The US government? No way.

      • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        It’s worth considering, but security personnel do sometimes have hand signals as normal operating procedure for a litany of reasons, like not cluttering comms, not creating undesired noise (he was right next to Kirk who was speaking in public and taking questions), not competing with ambient noise, and being understood over distance without needing to again cause one of the aforementioned problems. Most security people are going to be formerly military or police, where such signals are commonly used (or at least taught, in the case of cops). It’s also part of the “operate” aesthetic that those piggies love.

        While it narratively looks right to have a dude signal for the attack right next to the target, like Judas betraying Jesus by kissing him, I don’t think there’s really all that much reason for there to be signals down to a “fire now” from someone right next to Kirk when the event is highly public, has many uncontrolled cameras on it, Kirk mostly isn’t really moving during the presentation anyway (he was sitting down), and we don’t have reason to think that exact moment is an especially good time compared to 30 seconds earlier or later, plus the dude was not trying to conceal the gestures at all. It would be absurd for someone to blatantly produce a hand gesture that was covertly to tell the shooter to fire when he was so close to Kirk and therefore sure to be caught on camera like he was.

        Overall, I think it’s extremely unlikely, though again it’s a question worth asking. I agree with the other commenter that being startled isn’t a strike against the theory, but there are too many other factors against it.

        • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Having the sniper wait for a visual cue allows them to abort the mission at the last moment if they desire, without cluttering audio comms as you said.

          And maybe they were waiting until he mentioned gun violence. shrug-outta-hecks Although I admit the only thing that would accomplish would be irony. It’s probably just an ironic coincidence.

          • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            That is true, but I don’t think it refutes anything that I said, because I never disagreed about the fact that it could be useful to give a signal aside from the fact that the timing does not need to be that precise in this case.

            Unless by “last moment” you seriously mean a window of less than 5 seconds, it just makes much more sense to have him not be right there next to Kirk. He could still be far closer than the sniper without being like 6 feet away, and then he could much more easily avoid notice.

            And waiting until he mentioned gun violence just isn’t compelling as a theory. Like yeah, I can’t disprove you, but that seems like such a goofy thing to stake the mission on and do we even know that he was specifically going to talk about gun violence at the event? Or was it just because of the direction of conversation he happened to go in? How much of a benefit does that really give versus revealing that this wasn’t a lone wolf because a plant somehow infiltrated Kirk’s security outfit? And again, that could have been done at a much greater distance with no loss in efficacy beside the delay of literally a few seconds of the sniper looking between plant and target.

            Realistically, I don’t think there’s much that such a plant could accomplish that couldn’t be done by the sniper a) looking through the scope and b) being tapped into their comms, which presents a comparatively negligible risk even if you’ve got a guy on the inside to facilitate b. Again, Kirk’s plan was just to sit there and talk for an extended period of time, this doesn’t require Ocean’s 11 heist tactics, and being immediately caught like this guy was, if he was guilty (I am sure he isn’t), is such a huge risk for causing the whole operation to backfire as the conspiracy is uncovered.

            • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              Yeah, I guess so. If they were on the “stage” (behind the barriers) with Kirk then private security makes more sense. I was assuming they were mixed into the general audience when I first saw the video.

              I’d be interested to see more angles just to confirm how close they were. It would be neat if a journalist could interview them too (not even out of suspicion, just in a “tell us what it was like” way) and confirm that they worked for Kirk. If they immediately fled to Tel Aviv then that would be cause for suspicion lol (unlikely).

      • iThinkImDumb [any, hy/hym]@hexbear.net
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        wow that is some super suspicious shit. is that just a common thing security guys do? The one in the black shirt was still doing signals at the moment of the shot. he was startled when it happened but I guess anyone would be even if they were prepared for it.

      • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        lol yeah they’re definitely gonna put an assassination co-conspirator right next to him, on camera, so that he can tell someone to shoot Charlie Kirk, which is necessary because…?

  • LangleyDominos [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    Alleged weapon found at scene (given by NY Post)

    Mauser M18 .30-06 bolt action. Nothing exotic. You can get one at a sporting goods store. I’m going to go with the user not gauging the distance and they were aiming for his temple but it dropped to his neck. If they zeroed it in for 200m, it shouldn’t have dropped that much.

    • sisatici [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      I dunno but I feel like professional killer starts to make more sense to me. I don’t know much about guns and have not shot many rounds with them but I can guess one would buy a semi automatic instead of bolt if they are not 100% sure their first shot is gonna hit. I somewhat think they deliberately choose neck instead of head, more likely to kill in one hit. although rarely, people can survive being shot through the head.

      • stink@lemmygrad.ml
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        It’s also the kind of gun you’d find in a random shack in Utah, they could have just taken what they could get

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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    Its funny that in hasan coverage they interviewed a sniper trainer and downplayed the difficulty of the shot lmao.